Should You Offer Free Shipping On Your Products Or Charge Extra?

If you’re opening an online store, there are a number of things you’ll have to consider. What kinds of products do you want to sell? How are you going to be pricing your products? Do you want to charge for shipping, or offer free shipping on items?

Shipping costs when importing or exporting are something that many online store owners struggle with. Free shipping can be a great way to encourage customers to make a purchase. However, if you want to offer free shipping, you’re going to have to raise the price of the products you’re selling.

Here’s what you should consider if you’re trying to decide what to do about shipping.

Both Free Shipping And Low Prices Can Drive Sales

When people shop online, they often look for the best bargains. If your store has lower prices than its competitors, you’ll be able to attract a lot of business. However, high shipping prices can scare people away from a store. A lot of people add items to their cart, but don’t wind up purchasing the items after they see the shipping rates.

Free Shipping Makes Things Easier

A lot of people prefer to know what they’re paying up front. Adding shipping costs into the prices of your items can make things a lot easier for potential customers. Your customers won’t have to do any math; they’ll already know what they are going to have to pay.

Low Prices Can Increase Customer Satisfaction

People will judge a product more harshly if they pay a high price for it. Your customers are more likely to be satisfied with the products you sell if you charge less for them. Low prices could lead to happier customers and better reviews.

Consider A Compromise

If you want the benefits of free shipping, but would prefer not to raise your prices, you may want to come up with a compromise. You could try offering free shipping to customers that spend a certain amount of money. For example, you could offer free shipping as a reward for customers that spend $100 or more.

If you have limits on free shipping, you should be able to avoid raising your prices. In addition to that, offering these kinds of incentives can encourage people to spend more money in your store. Someone that would have spent $75 may spend another $25 so that they can enjoy free shipping.

A lot of stores use a compromise like this one. It’s a great solution for a store owner that wants to experience the benefits of free shipping and affordable prices.

It can be difficult to decide how to run your online store. Every decision that you make is going to have an impact on your store’s success. Thankfully, some decisions aren’t all that difficult to make. If you understand the benefits and drawbacks of free shipping, you’ll be able to decide what you should do.